Playgrounds Must Be Made Safer

April 18, 1989

The death of an 8-year-old Fort Lauderdale girl who was crushed by falling playground equipment is all the more tragic because it was so avoidable.

The climbing ladder at Pine Crest Preparatory School, an eight-foot-high device made of large wooden logs, had been identified as dangerous a week earlier when a routine inspection discovered it was leaning. A written warning was issued by officials of the private school and teachers were advised to read it to their students and to keep them off the structure. A ``danger`` sign was to have been placed on it and lumber was ordered for the repair of the rotting support timbers.

Still, the swiftness and enthusiasm of second-grader Jennifer Johnson defeated the well-meaning but inadequate precautions of the school`s staff. Even though two teachers were nearby, Jennifer managed to dart onto the device during a recess period.

It took only the weight of her slender body to nudge the structure past its breaking point. Jenny died when the wooden supports snapped and the heavy logs fell on top of her.

Pine Crest, one of 44 members of the Broward County Non-public School Association, is not subject to state, county or city inspections. A five- person staff installs and maintains playground equipment at all 165 county public schools and physical education teachers are responsible for inspecting the equipment daily. Some 30 Broward public schools have wooden devices similar to the one at Pine Crest.

Supports for wooden equipment are supposed to be made of pressure-treated lumber, which resists rotting. But not even pressure-treated lumber is impervious to South Florida`s hot, moist climate.

Officials of both the public and private school systems should initiate regular, thorough inspections of playground equipment by trained personnel. Until such procedures are begun, however, teachers should make routine, daily, common-sense observations to detect warning signs such as rusty hardware or wooden structures that are softer near the ground than at their tops. Suspect devices must be made strictly off-limits to children until repaired or replaced.

Playgrounds should be havens of joy and laughter, not tragic accidents waiting to happen.